Ch-ch-changes

Have I mentioned how much I am loving having an online class? It's been really convenient—no driving, and I think I'm learning as much if not more than in a traditional class. I do miss the human interaction, but I've gotten to e-mail my professor and share a discussion forum with my classmates (many of whom I've already had a class or two with, so they are familiar to me) which has resulted in some interesting threads. We've read about tagging, OPAC web-based adaptations, Drupal, social networking, Library 2.0, search engine optimization, openness/copyright, and so on. I've successfully learned how to develop a webpage using (X)HTML and CSS, and have really enjoyed pretty much every facet of this course. Here's hoping I can take another one before I graduate, since this class ends tomorrow with a final exam...

After class is done, I'll have a new task to look forward to: moving! Here is my new neighborhood, showing the distance from our place (B) to the new library (A, completion date: sometime at the end of August—in the aerial view, it's still a big parking lot):



On the right of the aerial view, you can see the dense buildings that make up the campus of my alma mater and S's current place of education. We'll both be within 10 blocks of the place we go to most frequently. We're going to try to be as green as possible, factoring in that I drive a total of 3 hours merely to get to my school's campus and back at least once or twice a week. See the green spot on the map? That's our 'lake'! And currently, my friend Amanda lives on the corner of the green field near the dot you see in the image.

We have a bit of packing to do, and the plan is to start moving in some larger furniture on Tuesday evening, culminating with the delivery of our new mattress on Wednesday. I see a trip to IKEA in our future...

Another mix, even though it's Wednesday

Fingers crossed

Well, tonight at midnight is the deadline for my final project for this summer's course. There are a few assignments and a test left, but this is the major assignment:

The Final Website!

So, that's the link, and I feel like it really is some of my best work. I actually understand XHTML and CSS now, which is incredible and surprisingly fun. I really got a kick out of making things look how I wanted them to look using simple commands.

I really, really hope I get an "A" on this.

Guess who got me these lovelies when I was feeling crummy earlier this week

I'm so happy you're alive

On Saturday I headed to the Rosedale Mall to meet up with two of my college friends, Kelly and Sara, to see David Sedaris read at the Borders there. They managed to get me a contraband wristband at the line up earlier that day, so we were able to eat a leisurely lunch and talk before the reading and then have books signed after the reading. It was really nice to see them both and catch up. Both of them are married and we talked about what comes next in our lives. They got us a lovely wedding present as well, which was an awesome surprise: our espresso machine! Woo! Plus, the game Taboo, so now we can have proper game nights and make yummy lattes for our guests.

Kelly had to leave a bit early, so Sara and I stood in line after the reading to have our copies of "When you are engulfed in flames" signed. We were talking about random things, and I was commenting about what a crappy day it was to be inside for an author reading, since the weather was so great, and that's when it was my turn to talk to Mr. Sedaris. So I wound up talking to him about the weather. Oh well. He signed my book, "To Beth, I'm so happy you're alive," which he signs for a lot of people, but it's kind of funny nonetheless.

Sara doesn't have a blog, so I'm going to tell her story here. It was her turn right after me, and David said her full name aloud, "Sara-Bridgett... we met last night!" and Sara said, "No... but we met the last time you read here," and he said, "I remember you," and she said she was surprised, but then he said, "Sara-Bridgett, what's in your bag?" and she kind of laughed and said, "Well, I'm kind of embarrassed." David said, "Why would you be embarrassed?" and Sara said, "It's a book for my husband," and she pulled it out and said "Cthulu and other stories," and David said, "How do you say that?" and Sara repeated, "Cthulu" (cuh-thoo-loo) "Why, how do you say it?" and David replied, "Oh, I don't know! Cthulu... Well, that's a lovely painting on the cover," and Sara agreed. I forget what he wrote in her book, but I do remember that he missed a word, probably because he was busy chatting to her about Cthulu. Hee.

Anyway, I've already read a few of the stories in his latest book, and they're pretty great. Also, if you're a Sedaris fan, I definitely recommend checking out Sloane Crosley's book, "I was told there'd be cake." It's humorous urban essays about everyday things, but the woman has a knack for description, much like Sedaris.

It's nice to be living in the future

This video (in case the embed above doesn't work) is something I had to watch for my class, and watching it kind of gives me goosebumps. It's so great to be living in an age of technology; typing this as I sit using my laptop to read articles online and watch Clay Shirky videos for my graduate school class, while thinking of how to design my webpage for my final assignment is pretty incredible when I think about what higher education was like even 20 years ago.

My favorite summertime drink

When Melissa posted Hemingway's favorite drink, I realized how similar it is to something my sister Andrea and I accidentally 'invented,' which we like to call:

The Lime-gasm!

Instructions for use:

Fill highball style glass with ice

Pour in the following:

original Malibu rum (approx. 2 shots worth)
lime juice (approx. 1 shot or to taste)
fill rest of glass with citrus soda (7up or Fresca work equally well)

Sip and enjoy!

I had no idea that there was already a drink called the Papa Doble, but I am not really a 'drinks' kind of person, more of a 'meet up with friends' type who capitalizes on cheap beer and/or wine. Anyway, I really like the lime-gasm, and if you try it, hope you do, too!

Also, check out Melissa C. Morris in The New York Times! I've enjoyed reading her blog for a while (I remember when she posted the first wedding photos, and I loved her intimate ceremony and white suit) so it's fun to see her getting some blogger recognition. She's not the typical blogger, that's for sure, and I love Monty Mondays! Like she says in the article, she tries to be lighthearted, and that's why I enjoy her writing.

As promised, Thing #4, photos of the new STC Library

IMG_1168,
originally uploaded by rubybeth.

As my readers know, I already use Flickr, but it's on the list of 23 Things, so again, I'm blogging about something I already like. I mainly use Flickr for personal photos, though with Facebook having unlimited uploads of photos, I often skip uploading things to Flickr and go to Facebook instead. I guess I do this because some photos are only interesting to those who are in them, and with Facebook tagging, this is easy and more fun for my friends than just seeing photos on Flickr. However, Flickr opens me up to a far wider community of awesome photographers. I love trolling for new and interesting photos, though I don't do it very often.

I used Flickr to find ideas for engagement and wedding photos, and our photographer uses Flickr, so I could comment on our e-photos as soon as he uploaded them, only a day after they were taken. I think this immediacy is what users want from libraries. As a millenial/gamer generation/generation Y librarian-to-be, I understand this need for something I want. Right now. That's what great about digital media; I take a photo of my friends out celebrating, and then before I go to sleep, I upload the photos to Facebook, and the next day we can already reminisce and solidify relationships, all because of technology.


All the photos of the new St. Cloud Public Library are on Flickr.

A mixtape application

Customized!!

I realize this is fast becoming a total wedding blog, but hey, when I've got 2 months to go, I want to write about the fun things I'm doing!


We decided on some custom stamps for our invites/reply cards/thank you notes. One of the things that we're paying special attention to for the event is the invitations. I really think the invites give guests a cue about the event itself—its formality and level of personalization, etc. so the fact that we designed our own stationery and are having it printed (soon!) and are getting these photo stamps, etc. is kind of important to me. I also addressed most of the envelopes today, and only messed up one! I inadvertently wrote "MN" instead of "Minnesota"—so not a huge deal, but I re-wrote it nonetheless. Here's hoping the printing process goes well!

Excitement at the library

Today as I was checking in some items at work, the power went out. We waited in the dark, scrambling for flashlights, checking out by hand by writing down patron's barcodes, asking, "How much longer until they let us go?" It was about a half hour, and we got word that we could leave. I made it as far as a downtown coffee shop before getting the call that the power was restored and to come back. Oh, the excitement!

On an unrelated note, round one of engagement photos are on the web! Alex did a good job, kind of staying out of the way, and getting some great candid/photojournalistic shots of us just having fun. We had one more location in mind, so we're going to attempt to get some more shots in a day or so, namely a semi-lame one where we are both looking at the camera and smiling for the local paper announcement (our mothers are very keen on this).

Fun with XHTML

I have been working a lot on my exercises for my online class (Internet Fundamentals and Design). My first assignment was easy. It was basically, here, make a little webpage with some italicized and bolded text with a link. So I put five links. *shrugs* I am all about content.

Next, I made this page which I lost some tiny fraction of points on, because I had two body tags and didn't close a paragraph tag. Oops. I fixed them and put up that identical page without the errors. The assignment got a little more tricky (include an image, resize it, etc.) but it took me back to the days where I made a blog on my Tripod site, superrubypunch, in 1997. Oh, I am nothing if not old school. I taught my sister everything I knew about HTML, and then promptly forgot most of it.

Then, I made this page which was fun, because I spent a ton of time hunting down pretty pictures (and naming them, so when you put your mouse over the images, there's a description). We also learned how to make links that pop up in a new window (or tab) and about ASCII symbols. I got all the points for this one. Hot stuff.

Now, I have worked ahead and created this version of the previous page because we learned how to make tables. I fully realize it would make much more sense to have the images be links directly to the items, but for the assignment, we were to make two tables, one of text that is centered, one with images. I will probably ultimately revise that page to a much larger table with links and image descriptions, etc.

I actually geek out about this stuff, which shouldn't be surprising to me, since I liked it when I did it at age 16, but hey, it's nice to know I haven't changed that much. I still like the same boy I did at age 17, so at least I'm consistent.

An additional item I didn't need, but love anyway

I am loving this scarf, which I just bought after finding out about it via, where else? The Etsy Wedding Blog.

I do realize that my wedding is in August, one of the (statistically, anyway) hottest months of the year, but since we'll be indoors for much of the time, and air conditioning is not known to be the perfect temperature, I was a little concerned about my bare shoulders/neckline. And, it should be a good match with the red silk shoes!


Oh, you'd think I'd planned this really well, wouldn't you? It's really been the luck of the wedding gods. Love the details on both are silver, and that I'll be wearing white gold jewelry, etc. etc. It's these little details that get me excited for our wedding day all over again, everytime I look at them.

My cousin Christy

My cousin Christy had her graduation party yesterday, and it was a hit. I tried my first Miller (gross), talked to various cousins I haven't seen in a while, ate a huge number of cookies (I lost count after four), and failed to really make any progress in wedding decision-making (cousin Angie is helping me with music! woo!). I scored a "you are good friends with Christy" on the 'Christy Quiz,' which was good news. I admit to cheating to figure out her favorite band (my cousin Erik revealed that the right answer was the top play count on her computer, even though the next 10 most played songs in iTunes were Colbie Caillat—hah!) but this didn't actually bump me to the eschelon of "You are best friends with Christy," so oh well.

I also got a lovely belated birthday present from my cousin Simon and his wife Eve, in the form of the game Clue. It's been a while since I've played the game, so we're going to find time in the next few weeks to hang out and watch Star Trek, play games, and go to an electronics store in the cities. Yay!

Perhaps if you are a regular reader, you've noticed the addition of ads to this blog. I'm going to try it out, see how it goes, etc. I've often wondered how ads work in a personal blog, but looking at the success of bloggers like Heather Armstrong who have a seriously huge amount of ads (but also excellent, fabulous content), makes me curious enough to try it out.

A plug: MyRegistry.com

This is just a brief plug for the site MyRegistry.com. S and I are using it to some extent for our wedding registry, because we like some things that aren't available at la Boutique Targét. There are awesome housewares available all over the web, from the likes of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and even Etsy! I recommend the site even if you aren't 'registering' for an event, but just want a place to store all the stuff you find online that you like and want to remember. I know life isn't about collecting piles of material objects, but hey, everyone needs bedding and towels, right? And why not a rice cooker, too?

Why online classes rule

Okay, so I'm taking this online class this summer with an instructor from Dominican University (my MLIS program is kind of confusing; I understand it, but it's weird to explain) and as I sat down this evening to watch a movie, I realized: I have an assignment to complete!

I'd started working on it yesterday morning, then promptly forgot about it as S and I went about our days. I subbed at a branch library, then we had delicious Chinese dinner with two of his aunts. After that, we watched a 'drive-in' movie, wherin we took my laptop to a parking lot where we could see the sunset and we watched "2 Days in Paris" which was great. This morning, I had a dress fitting with his aunt Jean, a.k.a. the amazing seamstress who sewed her daughter's wedding dress, and then we looked at an apartment.

So, this website is my completed assignment (nice, huh) plus I am reading about "As We May Think". And I just have to have this done by 11:50 pm! Yay for online classes.

Engagement photos coming up

meagan,
originally uploaded by Alexander Pierce Johnson.

This is a photo taken by our photographer, Alex Johnson, a.k.a. my sister's best friend since preschool. I'm really psyched to have him take our engagement and wedding photos. We're probably going to attempt to get outside and take e-photos either tomorrow or sometime next week.

Everyone has said, "You need a good photographer!" and I've said, "oh, my friend Alex is taking our pictures" and they've given me this weird sideways "you cheapskate" kind of look. But c'mon, look at this and his other photos on flickr... no worries! We're already comfortable with him, so that's half the battle. He's got such a great eye for beauty in small details, I'm excited!

You take me the way I am...

Isn't Ingrid Michaelson a really cute girl? I heard "The Way I Am" on public radio a few weeks ago, and just loved the song and listened to it a million times on last.fm. S and I just bought tickets to see her on June 6, so that will be our first concert together. We've been to bars to see bands, but it wasn't deliberately to see an artist we both liked. How weird is it that we've been together for more than 2 and a 1/2 years, and this will be our first 'show-going experience'?

Anyway, today is my first class meeting for Internet Fundamentals and Design, and the rest of the course will be done online. I've already decided that I'm probably going to design a wedding webpage for me and S, because, what the heck, that's what I'm spending the majority of my time working on, aside from actual library work and the difficult job of enjoying the beautiful Minnesota spring weather.

#3: RSS, Bloglines, oh my!

Thing #3 is another one I've already done. I use Bloglines, and I really like it. I have a few options that I do regularly: to skim for interesting posts from favorite bloggers, to read all posts by those bloggers since the last time I checked in, or to know it's been updated and to click through to their actual blog and read it from there. It's also one of those browser tabs that rarely gets closed once I open it in Firefox. I just keep it up and look at it once or twice a day when I want something to read.

I think one of the most useful applications of RSS could be for libraries and teachers to put out timely information on a feed instead of e-mailing or expecting users/students to login somewhere. RSS makes it easy to update the masses without masses of 'extra' information overload.

To be completely transparent, I will say that the only reason I found out about Bloglines 2 years ago was because I attended a session on Library 2.0 in Willmar, taught by Michael Stephens himself. I was the only one in the room of about 30 library staff who'd heard of or already used half the things he was talking about (last.fm, Facebook, Flickr, to name a few) and he literally told me, "You need a Bloglines account," so I went home and made one and never looked back.

I used to visit a lot of blogs on a regular basis, just to see if they'd added anything new, and now I don't have to waste time hunting around for updates. Aggregators, I find, are especially nice for keeping up with Michael Stephen's blog, Found Magazine's Daily Finds, and the combined list of LIS jobs. As of right now, I have 43 feeds in my Bloglines. Instead of hunting down where a feed is on a site, I usually just type the URL into Bloglines and let it search for the feed.

Decisions, decisions, wedding related decisions

So I'm pretty sure I know why brides seem extraordinarily obsessed with their own weddings. There are so many little decisions to make, and going through the process of making those decisions leads you closer and closer to the goal of being married to your guy. Case in point: what should I do with my hair for the wedding?


Exhibit A is my curly hair with the hair adornment made by the lovely Myra. I want my hair to look kind of natural, how it normally does, but punched up a bit. My Colombian 'sister' Cata said she will help me, and I'm sure Andrea (my sister) will, too. I just really like an un-fussy look, but need something that will hold up through photos and being outside in August.



The back of my head, with curls (some enhanced with curling iron, but not much).



So, what to do? I still don't know, but it helps to write about it instead of keeping it in my crazy bridal brain.